Remulcum
ῥῦμα
Remulcum (ῥῦμα, ῥυμουλκεῖν τὰς ναῦς), a rope for towing a ship ( Remulcum, funis, quo deligata navis magna trahitur vice remi,
Isid. Orig. 19.4.8; Remulco est, quum scaphae remis navis magna trahitur,
Festus, s.v. comp. Caes. B.C. 2.23, 3.40; Hirt. B. Alex. 11; Liv. 25.30, 32.16; Plb. 1.27, 28, 3.46). Looking to the form of the word ῥυμουλκεῖν, and the frequent use of ῥῦμα for the tow-rope (Plb. 1.26, 14, &c.), we can hardly doubt that the word remulcum is borrowed from the Greek, and that the connexion with remus is false. The ships were no doubt often towed by boats with oars, but this word would be used whatever might be the method of towing. In Latin of the best age it is found only in the ablative.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.